Lawsuits. Lawyers. Judges.
It would seem that the majority of the population have the impression that the only time you’re going to need a lawyer is when you get involved in a lawsuit, whether it’s a lawsuit that’s against you or when you’re the complainant. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with that presumption. However, this presumption becomes folly when people think that this is the only time that they’re going to need a lawyer.
See, the thing is that yes, it’s true that lawyers are excellent at solving problems. However, their mastery of the principles that govern legal matters does not reach its full potency when only used in lawsuits. It’s akin to having a boxer, who has two arms, only punch with one arm.
Lawyers are good at solving problems, but they’re even better at preventing them.
Now, as young business upstarts, you may lack the experience necessary to comprehend how to properly utilize the skill and knowledge that a lawyer possesses. Which is why this article is so necessary, because running a business has many facets, each with varying levels of difficulty and each with its own score of problems should you mishandle it.
Of course, you’re going to want to be at the reins of your business. That’s only natural and right. But, there are some tasks that you may need expert legal help with. As a rule of thumb, any task that involves licensing, trademarks, employee termination, employee misclassification, shareholders’ agreements, and even overtime disputes should all be issues left for your lawyer to handle.
The reason being that these are tasks and issues that could result in you getting sued if you mishandle any of them. For example, an overtime dispute is a very costly lawsuit to have thrown at you.
The Fair Labor Standards Act allows employees to recover all unpaid overtime as well as liquidated damages. The real kicker here is that they are also entitled to recover attorney’s fees. This is because even if the employee wins even a single dollar from an employer, the employee is still entitled to recover all attorney fees, which are almost always hefty.
You do not want this happening to your business. Hire a reliable corporate lawyer and have your lawyer help you with these legal processes.
But a lawyer can be expensive to hire.
That’s true. Which is why you should also know which tasks do not require expert legal help. These are tasks that you can handle on your own, or you can Google how to handle yourself. After all, the point of business is to profit, is it not? And one of the surest ways to do that is to cut costs as much as you responsibly can.
A few examples of tasks that you can handle on your own are: hiring and recruitment, business permit application, contract writing, domain name reservation, business strategy planning, and even handling IRS audits.
